


Mountains High and Valleys Low

by RollingTomorrow



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: M/M, No Spoilers, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 23:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3506006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RollingTomorrow/pseuds/RollingTomorrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Izuchi was always quiet at night, with residents in their homes and candles burning inside windows. Sorey and Mikleo planned to spent the night reading, though it wasn't unusual for the former to fall asleep with a book still open.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mountains High and Valleys Low

Light from the lantern flickered against the walls, but it still shed enough light to read by. The floor of Sorey's home was scattered with books pulled from the the piles that generally weren't much more organized. The books covered a wide range of topics, though the one currently in Sorey's hands was an old looking tome on weather patterns. It covered the climates in different areas of the world and had a handful of illustrations inside as well.

"Hey, look at this picture," Sorey said, holding the book up, "it's a desert."

Mikleo leaned over to get a closer look at the image. "Those rock formations look amazing."

"They'd look so much better in person," he said, flattening a corner of the page that had been bent by another owner. "And in color."

"Black and white doesn't do these places a lot for justice," Mikleo agreed. "Even Glenwood looks plain in pictures without color."

Mikleo returned to his own book, a collection of short stories Sorey had finished reading a day or two before, but Sorey didn't flip past the pages with the landscape of the desert. It was interesting to see high walls of stone reminiscent of mountains, yet so different from them. From the prior descriptions of their appearance, the colors were apparently quite different as well.

"Did it say that name of the desert?" Mikleo questioned.

"Hm…" Sorey paused, flipping a few pages back. "I think it's called Zafgot.."

"That book we read about nomads mentioned that place."

"Oh, that's right!"

Sorey yawned as he set the book down and stretched before closing his eyes. Pillows had been relocated to the floor near the bookshelves for a proper evening of reading. Neither of them were paying much attention to the time, though the way the candles were burning low was an indication that it was getting late. Even the lantern wasn't throwing off as much light as it had been earlier in the evening.

"Maybe we can go see a real sea. And a desert," Sorey said, sounding sleepy, but still enthusiastic about the notion.

"Deserts are so dry and hot though," he said, "the book on weather said it goes over a hundred degrees during the day then drops to freezing temperatures at night."

"It'd still be awesome to see at least once," he said drowsily.

Mikleo started to return to reading, but stifled a yawn before glancing over at Sorey. He grabbed a bookmark and reached for one of the candles to extinguish the flame. He held his hand over the flame and a few drops of water were enough to put it out. Sorey's breathing slowed and became more even. His hands were still resting atop the book, albeit loosely.

He didn't react to the candles being put out, leaving Mikleo to guess that he'd already fallen asleep. Though some people were more organized, it wasn't unusual for Sorey to fall asleep with a book still open. There were several times he could remember when Jiji had yelled at him for wasting the lantern oil by carelessly leaving it burning after Sorey had fallen asleep reading. Mikleo carefully slid the book out of his hands, glancing at the image of the desert for a moment before finding another bookmark for the page.

"I suppose there's no point in complaining about going to a desert," Mikleo said, a bit bemusedly. "I'd follow you anywhere."

Sorey opened his eyes and glanced over to see Mikleo, who was sitting up and facing away from him to turn off the lantern. It didn't take him long to put two and two together and realize that Mikleo evidently already thought he was asleep and quickly closed his eyes against to imitate his best impression of sleep. It probably wasn't as good as when he wasn't trying, but it was dark enough once the lantern was off to be passable.

Mikleo laid down with his back to Sorey, pushing a few books off the hem of a blanket as he did. Sorey waited until there was silence for a few moments before he glanced over now that the movement would go unnoticed, smiling slightly at the comment he'd overheard.

**Author's Note:**

> A book Sorey needs: map making 101.
> 
> Fic request meme from Tumblr! The prompt from IchigoRennyu was "things you said when you thought I was asleep."
> 
> I ended up going...somewhere in the middle of bromancy and shamelessly shippy. 8D


End file.
